


The Fire in his Eyes

by SpiritMuse



Series: Friendships through Fire and Ice [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Post Altissia spoilers!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-21
Updated: 2017-07-21
Packaged: 2018-12-05 03:40:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11569539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpiritMuse/pseuds/SpiritMuse
Summary: Prompto had never seen Ignis like this. And it scared him more than even standing right in the face of Titan, the Archean's fire scorching hot on his skin.It was all wrong. Ignis wasn't supposed to be like this. Ignis was supposed to be the one who held it all together. The one you trusted to get you out safely when everything around you turned to shit. The rock you clung to to stop you from being helplessly washed out to sea.SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 8 ONWARDS





	The Fire in his Eyes

Prompto had never seen Ignis like this. And it scared him more than even standing right in the face of Titan, the Archean's fire scorching hot on his skin.

It was all wrong. Ignis wasn't supposed to be like this. Ignis was supposed to be the one who held it all together. The one you trusted to get you out safely when everything around you turned to shit. The rock you clung to to stop you from being helplessly washed out to sea. 

But now, of course, everything had turned to shit for Ignis. And now, someone had to be his rock. Prompto wasn't sure he was up to the task, but he sure wasn't about to give up so easily.

The scariest part was that he could never quite see it coming. Ignis was patient and methodical and calm as he always was, all the way right up until he wasn't and then all of a sudden there was shouting and sometimes objects flung across the room and Prompto being told to get the fuck out.

Ignis wasn't supposed to swear, either. Or raise his voice at all, for that matter.

Prompto let out a deep breath to steady his nerves. He carefully balanced the tray on one arm, praying he wouldn't tip it over, as he knocked on the door with the other. No response, as usual. He carefully pushed the door open anyway.

"Ignis? I brought food," he said quietly, but loud enough that he hoped the other man could hear it.

Ignis was lying on the bed, on top of the covers, facing him. The gauze bandage covering almost half his face was a terrible reminder of what had happened. The doctors had said his left eye was far too damaged to ever work again. His other eye was closed. He always kept it closed after they'd found he couldn't see with that one either. It made it hard to tell if he was sleeping or awake.

"Put it down on the table," Ignis said. Awake, then. 

"Alright." Prompto watched Ignis slowly sit up and swing his legs over the side of the bed. He watched as Ignis got to his feet and started making his way to the foot of the bed, his hand trailing along the covers. He walked slowly, with unsure feet hesitating at every step. In his wrinkled plain T-shirt and his unfamiliar new pyjama pants that someone here in Altissia had gotten for him and his gloveless hands and his bare feet and his messy hair hanging down the side of his face he barely even looked like Ignis. It was all just so wrong and not how it should have been.

"Prompto, stop staring please," Ignis said, in that not unpleasant yet ever so slightly exasperated tone that almost sounded like Ignis was supposed to.

"Uh, yeah, sorry." How did he always know? Prompto nervously walked over to the table and put down the tray, taking care not to spill the glass of milk as he did so.

Ignis hissed in pain as he walked into the luxuriously upholstered chair that was way too fancy for a dining table chair in Prompto's opinion. He'd stubbed his toe. Not for the first time, Prompto knew.

"You ok?" he couldn't stop himself from asking.

Ignis sighed. "Yes. I'm alright. It appears I've found the chair," he said wryly, "Again." There was a hint of bitterness in his voice that made Prompto almost cringe.

When Ignis leaned on the table to sit down, his hand caught the edge of the tray. Prompto watched in silent horror as the tray pivoted upwards to a 45 degree angle and the plate slid down and the glass fell over and the food slid and tumbled all over Ignis' hand and the milk went pretty much everywhere else.

Ignis lifted his hand and the tray fell back to where it was supposed to be, but the damage was done. He sighed.

"It's ok, I'll clean it up," Prompto said as he quickly reached across Ignis and snatched up the napkins that had mercifully stayed dry on the other side of the tray. He dropped one on Ignis' hand so he could clean himself up, then went to work on the rapidly spreading pool of milk. It was already leaking down the side of the table onto the carpet. Ignis didn't need to know that, so Prompto quietly kneeled down to mop it up.

"Dammit!" he heard Ignis say angrily over the noise of shuffling plates and cutlery just before something smacked him right up the side of the head and he nearly fell over.

"Ow! That really hurt!" he whined, his hand protectively covering the newly forming bruise. Metal trays were hard and heavy and painful when they hit you. He looked up to Ignis, who was turned somewhat in his direction with a pained expression on his face.

"I'm... sorry, I didn't realize..."

"It's ok. I've had worse," Prompto smiled weakly as he got up. He rubbed the side of his head to dampen the pain a bit. Ignis seemed to deflate as he sank into the chair, all his energy vanished. Prompto quietly continued cleaning up the mess. 

He threw a paper towel on the carpet and stepped on it so it would soak in the last of the spilled milk, while he continued mopping the table. Then he kneeled down again to collect the plate, the cutlery and the errant food that had now spilled everywhere and deposit it all back onto the tray. The noise of the clinking cutlery sound way too loud in the awkward silence. He picked up the tray and got to his feet, glancing back at Ignis as he did so. Ignis hadn't moved a muscle. He was still sat there in the chair, his head bowed, his one visible eye closed as ever. Almost as if he'd given up on moving ever again.

He looked so small. So young. So lost. So perfectly miserable that it almost physically hurt. Prompto couldn't stand it. He carefully, as quietly as he could, set the tray back on the table and sat down in the way too fluffy chair next to Ignis. Or opposite? It was always hard to tell with a round table. He sighed. 

"You know..." he said quietly into the heavy silence, "Sometimes... I forget that you're not actually that much older than me. You're always so together, so... grown up. You always know just what to say, what to do... " Unlike Prompto. Who had never been more aware of this failure than in that moment.

"I've always looked up to you because of that," Prompto confessed. He thought he saw Ignis' eyebrow twitch upwards just a little. He kept talking nervously.

"I mean, Noct tells us where to go but you get us there. A-and I don't just mean driving the car, I mean... like... you _get_ us there." Gods he was so bad at this.

"Like... You're the one who pushes us forward when we're stuck, you pull us together when we're falling apart. You... take care of us." And he was probably babbling now but he couldn't stop.

"It's... easy to take that for granted sometimes, I guess. And it's easy to forget... that... you can get scared, too. I guess all of us forget that sometimes." Ignis' mouth opened just a little. Prompto noticed his brow was furrowed slightly. Oh no. This was not going well.

He sighed. "I know I annoy you a lot... I'm probably annoying you right now, but... you've always been there for me when I needed help. So, uh, thank you for that." Prompto flinched and cursed his utter crapness with words. 

"And, uh, I wanna be there for you too. If that's ok."

Ignis was silent for a long time after that. More than long enough for Prompto to start feeling incredibly uncomfortable. He'd probably said everything wrong. Actually, he was pretty sure of that. He wanted to run away and avoid the inevitable bad reaction, but he was scared to move and make it worse somehow.

He'd always found Ignis hard to read, but now, with half his face covered and his eyes closed, it was practically impossible. Ignis sat motionless, his brow creased as if he was in pain, and his lips twitched slightly, almost as if he was trying to say something but couldn't quite remember how his face worked.

Then suddenly Ignis made an annoyed sound and turned his head away from Prompto, so that only the bandaged side was visible. Prompto panicked. This was exactly what he'd been afraid of. He'd upset Ignis. Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap...

"I'm sorry, I-I didn't mean..." he said nervously, "I'll go if you want." He almost tripped over his own feet in his rush to get to the door.

"Wait..." 

Prompto froze for what seemed like an eternity.

"...Thank you."

It was barely more than a whisper. But it was everything Prompto needed to hear. He let out the breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding. Maybe he hadn't screwed this up too badly after all. He looked back at Ignis who was rubbing his hand across his face, his eye. Wait. Was he... wiping away tears? Oh. So that was why he'd turned away so suddenly. Looked like despite everything he still didn't like to show weakness. Or what he thought of as weakness, anyway. It was almost reassuring to see that some things hadn't changed, as much as Prompto thought it would be good for Ignis to open up more sometimes. Which, right now, he kind of was, a little bit. So that was good. Probably.

"I would... appreciate your help."

The words shook Prompto out of his thoughts, and he smiled.

"Ok. Well. Alrighty then," he said with as much enthusiasm and cheerfulness as he could muster, "So. What can I do for you? Just let me know. Anytime. I am at your service, my lord. I am totally yours to command," Prompto flailed his arms as he bowed with an exaggerated flourish. Which Ignis couldn't see, of course.

"I just made the most awesome elegant bow for you by the way," Prompto noted as he straightened up, "Just in case you were wondering," he added lightly.

Ignis' mouth twitched, then he burst into quiet laughter as his face lit up in the most welcome smile Prompto had seen in ages. Ignis rarely laughed, even before all this mess, so Prompto felt a quiet ping of pride at this achievement, even if it did sound a bit wet and brittle. The tension that had hung in that room, had hung around Ignis, finally lifted and he felt like he could breathe freely again.

"Well then," Ignis sounded almost amused, "I suppose my first order is for you to get me some more food, since _someone_ ended up throwing it to the floor in a fit of pique," he added wryly, though the bitterness had dissipated from his tone. For now, anyway.

"Your wish is my command, my lord!" Prompto said dramatically as he picked up the ruined tray and carried it across the room.

"And if you please," Ignis' voice sounded more serious again, softer, almost hesitant, "tell them I would like to take those mobility lessons now. If they're still offering."

"Of course."

"Thank you."

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. <3


End file.
